In 1908, the Virginia General Assembly granted money for an agricultural high school for each of the 10 state districts. Manassas was chosen to be home to the agricultural school for the eighth district and also was the first agricultural school to be built from this grant.

Dr.Maitland C. Bennett donated two acres of land for the Bennett School, located on a small hill near the existing Manassas Court House. In digging the foundations for the Bennett School, two graves were found.They were the graves of soldiers from the Civil War.It was decided to leave the graves in place and erect the BennettSchool as a memorial to those who died in the Civil War.

The BennettSchool project cost $16,000.In 1909, BennettSchool opened for elementary students in Manassas who lived within a nine mile radius of the school.Due to the large elementary school student population, Bennett was never used as an agricultural high school. The then existing RuffnerSchool in Manassas was expanded to accommodate the agricultural and secondary students.In 1913, Ruffner was expanded a second time.

As the Ruffner School became overcrowded in the 1920's, the OsbournSchool was built for secondary education and to house the agricultural school. Later a new OsbournSchool was built and the old OsbournSchool became the Bennett Annex.Both buildings served as BennettSchool until 1969.A new Bennett school was built in 1969 and the OldBennettSchool next to the judicial center was used by the Prince William County Police.The Old Osbourn was torn down in 1986.

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